Into the tunnels

[lucetimods]

Who: Anyone who saw this.
What: A new section in the tunnels
When: The morning of the 10th onward
Where: Beneath Luceti
Summary: After revealing a new section of the tunnels, the people of Luceti have the freedom to slip in and see what secrets await them.

This is an open log for anyone who would like to thread out checking the tunnels out, observe the wall of memoirs, or just generally poke around at things.

Comments

[corrinesbell]

Yeah, I know that, I just meant...that what I think is that they wanna get away. They've been here longer and they've got more at their disposal and everything, and maybe they're just taking us along for the trip because there's no better way to get us to help.

[chikaidestroyer]

[There is silence for a few seconds.]

They certainly had options. They did not need to allow us to fight. They did not need to allow us to participate in missions. We could have remained here solely as test subjects. Is that what you are referring to?

[corrinesbell]

Yeah. And hating them and trying to escape or kill them or whatever it was we were doing.

But they decided to try to make friends instead. To act like we had choices.

[chikaidestroyer]

Not without effort, you realize. They did not make such a decision without discussion and persuasion.

[corrinesbell]

Yeah, thanks, I was here. It hasn't changed that I still think they're using us, just in different ways so we don't decide to all go against them at once.

[chikaidestroyer]

And you think that going against them would be in our best interests?

[corrinesbell]

[Sigh. Albert keeps giving her words connotations that she doesn't intend for them to have. Sheena rubs her left temple and shakes her head.]

At least not anymore I don't. Things're too different and we've never really had control anyway.

[chikaidestroyer]

[His voice is flat, though his meaning is ultimately flippant.] We have, in our own ways. We could have given up at any point.

[Speeding up the process of being reduced to shells. Or being sacrificed.

...]

What do you want, Sheena? What kind of comfort or hope are you expecting now?

[corrinesbell]

I wanna know that we'll do better than this. That we're gonna...get to something that's not either being a Malnosso or joining their army. That we'll all get what we're hoping for.

...I guess maybe that's a lot to ask for, huh?

[What she doesn't want is to argue with Albert. She wants him to agree with her, mostly, or come to a compromise. Because she sees his point. It was to their benefit to work with the Malnosso instead. She just doesn't think she explained it the way she meant to.]

I'm not giving up.

[chikaidestroyer]

It depends on what you consider better. What you consider progress. What you consider your ideal goal. What I consider progress could mean nothing to you; what I consider a goal could be nothing to another. [He shakes his head, his voice just a touch quieter.]

I do feel that we are better off remaining here than being brought into the Organization. At least, while we are still here, they acknowledge that we meet the criteria of the project.

[corrinesbell]

Yeah. I don't wanna...I really don't wanna turn into them if it means we've got to start being in charge of a new set of us. Or something like that.

[A heavy sigh. It felt like progress for a little while, down here, but they are just as stalled as they ever have been, aren't they?]

[chikaidestroyer]

You are thinking along a narrower path in that regard than I am. [Though what she was saying was certainly a valid fear.] If we are extracted from Luceti, it could very well mean that there is no longer any hope of us leaving this world. Then we are even more exposed to the war and the cultists, without the power and influence Luceti, as a whole, manages to accrue.

[corrinesbell]

[Albert's always had a better grasp of a bigger picture than Sheena has. It's how he works.

Losing their chance at getting home is, indeed, worse.]

Whoa. I didn't even think about that.

[chikaidestroyer]

[He nods faintly as she takes in the explanation.] As much as we do not have control of our own situation by being in Luceti, there's still the hope that we will not be trapped in the cycle of lifetimes people here are forced to endure. [...] If I grow old and die, I do not want to return from the dead to live out my life all over again.

[corrinesbell]

I don't wanna do it anyway. What if you die here and that totally ruins your chance to go home already? [She has thought this for years. That it was still your life you were losing, and once lost, in your world you still didn't get second chances. There is evidence to negate all that but it hasn't left her mind.] I guess if you come back better off like Bil's gonna do it wouldn't be so bad, but still...first you've gotta die. Without...y'know, much hope.

[chikaidestroyer]

What if you die here and ruin your chance to go home indeed. [His eyes wander away for a moment; though he did not want to die, and he shared Sheena's concern, there was still something else to consider.] Does that concern weigh heavily upon you? After all, there are those you know who have already died here in Luceti.

[corrinesbell]

I try not to think about it. About them, what it'd be like at home if they weren't there all of a sudden. [Since 'they' include Zelos and Raine, there are some days where she can't stop thinking about it at all.] But I can't...go back and make it not happen, right? I'm stuck with that as part of the past.

[chikaidestroyer]

If what we know is to be believed, the only way people are truly ... "erased" from the cycle is through the Third Party's rituals. I know it's little comfort in our situation, but it's a preferable thought over thinking dying through an experiment or a draft will result in never leaving the cycle.

[Because the moment they did die, that fear was reinforced. Possibly to a crippling degree. It was best to have emotional safeguards in place.]

[corrinesbell]

If it's all the same to you I don't wanna die at all. [Definitely not in a draft, with the higher risk, but not via experiment either.] I guess that's...a little better though.

[These are the things she talks about with no one.]

[chikaidestroyer]

[He shakes his head, managing to smile wryly despite how serious the conversation is.]

I would very much rather not die at all, either. After what we have survived through-- [and they had survived through a lot in their time in Luceti] --it would be terrible to die now.

[corrinesbell]

I know we'd come back and everything but it still wouldn't be...right. None of this is, anyway. [She shakes her head too, twice and very hard.] On top of everything else it'd just feel like, like failing, y'know? Like in the end despite everything we weren't enough either.

[A lot of people she considers to be more than enough have already been unfortunate enough to die.]

[chikaidestroyer]

That's presuming that it's a death we struggle against. [He has to be realistic in his approach.] If you were killed suddenly by a wayward arrow or a bullet, do you feel that is how you would think of the situation?

[corrinesbell]

I don't know, really. Maybe. [That's the direction her thoughts tend to take anyway.] Like I should've been a better...fighter.

[chikaidestroyer]

Or a seer, perhaps. [He shakes his head, stepping away from Sheena and towards the door.] Are you ready to head back out?

[corrinesbell]

Yeah, I guess. [Nothing about this conversation has settled her. If anything she's more unsettled than how she began. But she won't be taking anyone's head off with her fist - improvement.]